The Saratoga Race Course long has been known as "The August Place To Be." The slogan is short, concise and catchy, although not entirely accurate since the extended 36-day meet now stretches from July 28 to Sept. 6. Lengthening the meet was a somewhat contentious issue, with critics saying the quality of the competition would be diluted and the unique character of the city and the track compromised.

Judging from the numbers, however, Saratoga Springs is still a summer hot spot. According to the New York Racing Association (NYRA), attendance last year averaged 24,660 per day, up from about 23,000 the year before. The on-track handle was slightly more than $3 million per day, an increase of nearly $120,000 over 1997's daily average. And the total handle, which includes off-track betting and simulcasting, averaged more than $13 million per day, a new North American record.

Besides all those wagers, visitors to the track spent millions of tourist dollars at local hotels and restaurants. Based on this success, can people expect the Saratoga racing season to be extended once again in the near future? Not very likely, said local officials.

The meet at Saratoga had been 24 days from 1956--when NYRA assumed ownership of the course--until 1991, when the decision was made to go to 30 days. In 1994, the meet again was extended--to 34 days--and in 1997, it went to 36 days, where it remains and probably will stay.

"I think there is reasonably general agreement among the [racing] community" that the meet should not be extended further, said William Dake, president of Stewart's Ice Cream Co. Inc. in Saratoga Springs and a former chairman of the Saratoga County Planning Board. "I think they recognize that it would be unwise to squeeze the golden goose too tightly," he said.

Charles Wait, president of the Adirondack Trust Co. in Saratoga Springs and a NYRA board member, said he has mixed feelings about a longer meet. "There are certainly benefits to extending the meet, but if you look at the statistics objectively, I think you'll find that we're pretty much stretched to the limit," he said. "The current length isn't hurting us, but if you dilute it too much, people may start to lose interest."

Another factor to consider is the trials and tribulations caused by a longer meet. While the racing season brings many tourist dollars to town, it also brings traffic, crowds and long lines, said Jeffrey Pfeil, president of Pfeil & Co., a Saratoga Springs-based commercial real estate and development company.

"As a businessman, I like the increased business activity," Pfeil said. "The longer meet gives more people more of an opportunity to come to town, which is good. But as a resident of the community, I don't think I'd like to see it any longer."

Joe Dalton, president of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce, said he had some concerns about extending the meet to six weeks. "I think that's pretty much as far as they can go, and in fact, some in the racing community would like to see it back at four weeks," he said.

Besides "diluting the product, the physical plant itself takes an enormous beating over the course of the [meet]," Dalton said. "You're bringing millions of people into the facility over a six-week period, and that creates a lot of wear and tear."

However, Wait said the shorter meet actually can create more stress on the track's infrastructure. "If you have a grandstand designed to hold 14,000 people, and you're getting crowds of 30,000 in every day, it's a good thing to lengthen the meet and lower the daily [visitor] average," he said.

While many local residents and businesses profit from the longer meet, Dalton said visitors to the track also benefit from having a wider choice of hotels and restaurants, and shorter lines and better service at the track. NYRA, of course, also benefits, as well as the horsemen. "... In a four-week meet, some horses may only get a chance to race once," he said.

But not every local business will prosper from a longer meet, Dalton said. "Many visitors aren't familiar with the region, and so they look for the large, national chain hotels. The secondary-choice hotels, which would be filled during a shorter meet, sometimes go vacant during the longer meet because there's fewer tourists in town at any one time," he said. And the same thing happens with the restaurants. "The top-shelf places will be sold out, but some of our secondary eateries won't see the same boom in business."

Just how much is spent in Saratoga Springs during the meet? Dalton said the total annual amount tourists spend in the city is $50 million. "Half of that--about $25 million--will be spent during the summer from June 15 to Sept. 15, and half of that amount will be spent in August," he said.

Dalton said the $12.5 million estimate doesn't include day trippers, people on bus tours or those coming to town and staying with friends or relatives. "So, conservatively speaking, you can probably increase that number by one-third," he said.

The track's contribution to the region doesn't end when the tourists leave, however. Dake, the former planning board chairman, said "while the track has an obvious economic benefit, it also provides a secondary benefit in regard to the overall horse activity in town."

Dake said the polo matches, the Equine Sports Center, horse shows, the harness track and surrounding horse farms "are all a product of, or dependent upon, the track."

Dalton agreed and said the racing community was instrumental in the construction of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. "In fact, the first year's operating deficit for SPAC," which he estimates at about $500,000, was paid for by members of the racing community. "They've always been strong supporters of the city, and their support goes beyond the track," he said.

The race track has made a great deal of money for a great many people. Even Saratoga County pocketed nearly $500,000 last year in admission taxes paid by visitors to the track. City and county officials have battled over the propriety of the county pocketing those proceeds, when the city has to bear the expenses associated with the meet, such as increased police protection and employee overtime.

Further complicating the issue, the county is in considerably better financial condition than the city and, in fact, is enjoying a multimillion-dollar budget surplus. To address the inequity, the county has agreed to split the admission tax, which could mean an additional $250,000 for the city, Adirondack Trust's Wait said. The admission tax is 15 percent of each $2 grandstand and $4 clubhouse ticket sold.

The meet also means jobs for some local residents. Dalton said he knows of some school teachers who pick up second jobs each summer and high school kids who work for college money. He estimates that 700 to 1,000 people are employed during each meet, working as mutuel clerks, wait staff, maintenance and security.

Yet, despite the economic windfall the track brings to the region, its overall contribution is far greater, said local officials.

Dake said Saratoga Springs residents enjoy much better restaurants than some of their neighbors have. "We sometimes take for granted the overall presence and ancillary elegance [the track] gives to the city," he said.

Due in part to that elegance, Sports Illustrated magazine this year voted the Saratoga track one of the 20 greatest venues for sports in America, the chamber's Dalton said. "We have a tradition here that has been abandoned at most other tracks," he said.

"Usually, the bean counters come in and all they care about is getting the most possible [number of] people in the door. They don't care about tradition. But [at Saratoga] we have an elegance and charm that's a holdover from the old days."

Besides making Saratoga a unique race track, its charm and elegance also make it a unique gambling venue, which may prevent it from losing customers to nearby casinos.

"A day at Saratoga is not like a day at a casino," Dalton said. "You can sit at a blackjack table all day and pretty much figure out what your odds are. It's more mechanical. It's strictly gambling. A day at Saratoga is as much a social event as a gambling event."